U.S. Chamber maintains support for nuclear dump

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005 | 10:47 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Getting full funding for the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is on the U.S Chamber of Commerce's list of priorities for the new session of Congress.

The organization, which represents businesses and corporations, has advocated for the repository to open in the past and is not backing away from that position.

Thomas Donohue, the chamber's chief executive, said the country needs a repository and the plans to build one at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas need to continue.

"If we ever put a map on the wall of everywhere nuclear waste is stored, there would be a sense of panic," Donohue said.

Donohue said his group would be "fully engaged" in budget debates on the project.

Nevada's congressional delegation strongly opposes the Energy Department's plan to store waste at Yucca and works to cut the budget every year. The administration asked for $880 million for 2005 but eventually received only $577 million. The request for fiscal year 2006 will come out sometime in February.

Bruce Josten, the chamber's executive vice president for government affairs, said the important thing to remember is that government money does not pay for the bulk of the program; a fee collected by the nuclear industry covers most of the cost.

Yucca Mountain "is the place to store this," Josten said. "You cannot store nuclear waste above ground all across the country."

Josten said the chamber is not likely to get involved with any debate on whether the 10,000-year radiation standard should be changed or whether the project needs a new standard as directed by a federal appeals court last year

He said there was a "certain silliness" in debating 10,000 years versus 100,000 years as the compliance standard. He said the appropriate debates took place when the Environmental Protection Agency created the standard.